By KEVIN HASKIN
TopSports.news
In days when he could maintain enough business to at least break even on the enterprise, Rick Peterson stocked a makeshift snack bar fellow journalists affectionately called, “Pistol’s Pantry.”
The Pantry had standards. I remember bringing some discounted (expired, in case you follow pesky health regulations) treats I found at a Mennonite grocery. Pistol carefully considered all merits before deciding he better not sell stale product.
“Really I ought to,” he said, “or Rickie will eat away all my profits.”
Frankly, Pistol didn’t start his Sam Drucker enterprise at The Topeka Capital-Journal to get rich. I’m not even sure he broke even. Deep down, Rick loved to provide his newsroom pals a price break that sportswriters relished as much as seamless internet access.
And Rickie? He made up for any reconciling discrepancies at the Pantry register by retracing his father’s footsteps and becoming a tireless workhorse who rose to join Rick as two of the best in the business.
In June, at ceremonies in North Carolina sponsored by the National Sports Media Association, Father and Son will be honored as the 2020 co-recipients of the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year Award. Rick will also receive his 2019 award as a five-time Kansas winner. The honor will be the first for Rickie, who is in his third year at the Hays Daily News.
Rick Peterson (left) and his son, Rick Jr., will be honored in June in North Carolina by the National Sports Media Association as the co-Kansas Sportswriters of the Year for 2020. [Photograph by Phil Anderson]
“It’s kinda cool to share in that moment with him because I know it’s his last hurrah from his newspaper career,” Rickie said.
“It’s probably more cool for me,’’ said Rick, “because I am kind of coming to the end and I think it’s kind of cool to see somebody taking up the mantle. I’ve always tried to help him as much as I can and now we’re at the point where he helps me a lot. He knows more about the electronic side of everything and the tech side, and he can help me.”
Their teamwork helped launch the new endeavor you clicked on right here, TopSports.news, after Rick spent 31 years at the Capital-Journal, hiring on in 1989 after covering sports for both the Baldwin Tele-News and the Ottawa Herald. Rick first worked as the C-J’s state high school writer and then turned his attention to the city prep beat, succeeding some hack named Hasbeen, or something like that.
Ever since, Rick Peterson grew into a brand name synonymous with Topeka preps, tapping on sources every day to uncover breaking news while covering scores of events contested in all sports.
Trust me, high school sports have no better friend in Topeka. Anyone who blames the media for this problem or that problem (did I properly work in both sides of the political debate?) never met Rick Peterson.
Good thing is Rick hasn’t drifted away. He is attempting, along with longtime Topeka radio broadcaster Bill Griffin, to build this website and inform readers of what’s happening on the Shawnee County sports scene, all while providing the content for Rickie’s rate at the Pantry, free of charge.
I could go on and on about Rick’s exploits. Like the times I marveled when his underhanded marksmanship in Pop-a-Shot waxed all comers, or when he shaped his Tony Pena 2-wood (a real wood, mind you) into the middle of the fairway on every tee ball, or when he skillfully picked a “closer” and cashed on a winning greyhound.
However, the most inspiring moments came watching Rick share two passions – sports and newspaperin’ – with Rickie.
He would take the youngster to games, explain the finer points, introduce Rickie to all of us at the paper, coach him as Rickie began at the C-J as a Topeka High senior, remind Rickie of whatever assignments he had coming up, and suggest stories Rickie could write that pertained to his beats.
This sequence of events began playing out when Rickie first moved to Topeka as a 1-year-old, tagging along with his dad to a high school gym, a motor sports track, a company gathering or the C-J newsroom.
We all rooted on Senior and Junior. One, because when Rickie got to clicking a keyboard, HALLELUIAH, we had found someone to cover Expocentre hockey and the Sunflower State Games! And two, we loved Pistol and Popgun and recognized the bonus from getting two Petersons doing what they loved in the same newsroom.
“Looking back, he almost didn’t have a choice but to do this,’’ Rick said. “He loved sports and he loved being around the guys who were in sports, those who were at the paper and also those doing radio.”
He and his dad will rub shoulders with all of the greats in America sports media – print and electronic -- come June in North Carolina. But none of them will have a story to tell that’s quite like theirs.
